John Thomson Mason

Mason was born on 15 March 1765 at Chopawamsic in Stafford County, Virginia.[1][2] He was the third child and youngest son of Thomson Mason and his wife Mary King Barnes.[1]

Mason operated a plantation in what was then Washington County, Maryland near Elizabethtown (now Hagerstown using enslaved labor.[3]

Admitted to the Maryland bar, he attained high rank,[4] but twice declined the office of United States Attorney General when it was offered by Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.[4] Mason ran for one of Maryland's seats in the United States Senate, but lost.[4] He then served as Attorney General of Maryland in 1806.[2] He was also one of six judges appointed to a newly restructured court of appeals by Governor Robert Bowie on 19 January 1806, but declined the appointment.[5]

Elizabeth Beltzhoover Mason, painted by Gilbert Stuart

Mason married Elizabeth Beltzhoover in 1797.[1][2] He and Elizabeth had seven children:[1][2]

• Mary Barnes Mason Winter (c. 1800–11 May 1844)[1]
• Elizabeth Ann Armistead Thomson Mason Wharton (4 April 1803–20 January 1857)[1]
• Abram Barnes Mason Barnes (21 October 1807–10 April 1863)[1]
• Melchior Beltzhoover Mason (born 3 October 1812)[1]
• John Thomson Mason, Jr. (9 May 1815–28 March 1873)[1]
• Thomson Mason (15 July 1818–1848)[1]
• Virginia Wallace Mason (16 April 1820–6 October 1858)[1]

Mason died on 10 December 1824 at the age of 59.[1] Mason was interred at his Montpelier estate in Clear Spring, Maryland.[6]

John Thomson Mason was a nephew of George Mason (1725–1792);[1] son of Thomson Mason (1733–1785);[1] brother of Stevens Thomson Mason (1760–1803);[1] half-brother of William Temple Thomson Mason (1782–1862);[1] first cousin of George Mason V (1753–1796);[1] first cousin once removed of Thomson Francis Mason (1785–1838), George Mason VI (1786–1834), Richard Barnes Mason (1797–1850), and James Murray Mason (1798–1871);[1] uncle of Armistead Thomson Mason (1787–1819) and John Thomson Mason (1787–1850);[1] father of John Thomson Mason Jr. (1815–1873);[1] and great uncle of Stevens Thomson Mason (1811–1843).[1]